


I'm Cold (Help Me)

by The_angel_that_fell



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Aliens, Cold, F/M, Fluff, Kissing, Schmoop, also they get cold, but it's fine, ice planets are hell, unless you're a bored writer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-26
Updated: 2017-11-03
Packaged: 2018-10-24 07:52:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10737363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_angel_that_fell/pseuds/The_angel_that_fell
Summary: They shouldn't have gone to Beruna in the middle of winter.They shouldn't have trusted that weird alien.And they really shouldn't have gone first out that door.But now they were in a winter wilderness, cold and unforgiving, and they would have to make do.





	1. Beruna

The Doctor frowned.

"This doesn't look like 1200s London," he said. Clara looked around at the market bustling with warmth and blue-skinned tradespeople, their dark hair swaying over three pale eyes.

"Where are we?"

"Beruna, I think, in the Sixth Millennia. It's an ice planet." Clara's eyebrows knitted together.

"Are you sure?"

"Not in here," the Doctor smiled, tipping his head back. Far above them, a dome glimmered. "This is a miracle of engineering, a efficient cycle where the body heat of the citizens is recycled so not a single drop of energy is wasted. No need for radiators in here!"

"So we're in... a city?"

"Yep," he confirmed, and grinned at her. "Where do you want to start?"

 

Beruna was alive like no other place Clara had ever visited. The citizens smiled at her, some brushing long fingers across her arm curiously, examining her like a specimen, but most just nodded in acknowledgment and continued on their way. The red and gold stalls displayed all she could ever want or need - necklaces draped over blue fingers, sweet perfumed smells of the local delicacies, the taste of white meat on a black stick, full of flavour. The people here traded not in money but in objects of equal value, whatever the seller was willing to accept. The Doctor was still nibbling at the white meat when a woman stepped into their way.

Her dark hair flowed over her shoulders, braided in some places with intricate patterns and her clothes were finer than most of the others, set with blue and white and silver stones, but it was her face that set her apart, those three pale eyes narrowed as she looked them up and down.

"Who are you?" the Doctor enquired. She cocked her angular face like a predator.

"I am Ianstir in your language," she said, her voice heavily accented with her native tongue. "Are you one of the Forbidden?"

"The what?" Clara asked.

"The Forbidden," she repeated impatiently. "The Dfrwaes. Those who do not belong."

"We're just travellers, passing through," he said gently, easing himself slightly in front of Clara. She would have pushed him back, but she understood this was something he would handle best. Ianstir fixed her cold stare on him and hissed softly.

"You know nothing of them, do you?"

"No."

She hissed again in laughter and her features clenched. What a pathetic pair, she seemed to say. What a strange coincidence.

"Come with me," she growled suddenly, and swished through the crowd. The Doctor looked at Clara and she shrugged. He nodded, she took his hand, and they followed.

Ianstir wound through so many squares and marketplaces Clara was lost in no time at all, but she didn't slow her relentless pace until a massive shining wall began to close over them. It was only when she stopped she understood where they were.

Where the dome ended.

Beyond the clear wall, she saw a white landscape with fresh-falling snow drifting down from the sky. This was the real planet, ice and cold and snow. Ianstir stepped right up to the wall and pressed  her hand flat against it. There was a soft whirring sound as a light beam swept up and down her hand and then a blast of icy wind nearly knocked Clara off her feet as it howled through. A section of the dome had opened like a door.

"After you," she purred. Hesitantly, they stepped through.

And the door slammed shut behind them.

They whirled around and Ianstir smiled widely at them, curved teeth glinting.

"What do you know about the Dfrwaes? Tell me!"

"We don't know anything!" the Doctor called back.

"You'll freeze out here! Tell me!"

"What are you talking about?" Clara demanded. Ianstir just shook her head, raising her eyebrows, and turned her back on them, walking back to the city, while they pounded on the glass dome and shouted at her retreating back.

 

Beruna was cold.

Actually, cold was an understatement. The ice planet scorched its freezing air into their bones and stung at the back of their throats. They weren't dressed for the weather.

"We literally just came out!" the Doctor snapped to the city guard, a tall block of hulking muscle wrapped in furs and leathers. He, or it, or whatever it was, shook its bulbous head.

"No entrance to outsiders without papers," it grunted, and turned away.

"You can't just leave us to freeze!" he argued. The guard simply picked up its electrified staff and planted it in the snow.

"Doctor, leave it," Clara said tiredly, placing a hand on his arm.

"The TARDIS is inside the city!" he pointed out.

"I know," she said. "We just need to get those papers."

Together, they turned their back on the city and stared into the icy landscape, studded with the occasional glistening tree but otherwise completely bare. It looked like it went on forever, gentle rolling hills and knee-depth snow - and the falling snow, increasing in intensity.

 

The next city over was a good few days away, but it may as well have been a month at the progress they made. Finally, Clara understood the purpose of the flat, elongated feet and spread of body weight. Every step took a ridiculous amount of energy and the inevitable dragging out of snowdrifts. In her light clothes, suited to the balmy city temperature, she might as well have been naked. The coat the Doctor forced on her helped, although it didn't stop his shivering either. The snow fell harder and harder until the world seemed to be made of white.

It was two hours on when the faintest outline became visible. A large structure formed itself into some kind of barn, abandoned and with loose timbers, but it was a reprieve. A roof over their heads. Clara and the Doctor had just made it in when a figure stepped forward. Blue-skinned like the others, he was set apart by his massive dark eyes and long white hair, a rarity apparently among their kind.

"I am one of the Forbidden," he said. "And what are you?"

The Doctor explained their predicament because Clara was shivering too much to get the words out. He glanced at her blue lips occasionally, face taut with anxiety.

"You are not from here," the alien said. "I owe you no allegiance."

And that fast he was gone out into the blizzard, lithe form vanishing. The Doctor stared after him in disbelief, but was distracted by Clara sagging in his arms.

The only distinguishing feature in the barn was a small pile of hay-like material. The Doctor pulled her towards it and pushed enough out the way that there was a small indent like a nest and sat her in it, taking one cold hand in his almost-warm one.

"Clara, you've got hypothermia," he realised, letting go of her hand and gripping the sides of her face so she focused on him. "I'm sorry, but I can't warm you up like this. You need body heat."

He waited until she mumbled assent and then pulled her light sweater off before dragging his own over his head . "All right?" he asked tersely. She muttered something that was definitely Clara-like, and his smile flickered for a moment. He wrapped the discarded clothes around them both and she curled into him, tangling their legs. He pressed his hands against her back, pulling her closer, and listened to her breathing steady, and slow.

Just because she wasn't awake, he kissed her forehead and whispered softly,

"I love you."


	2. Safety

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> surprise I'm back

The Doctor woke up slowly. He was aware of Clara, pressed into his chest and still fast sleeping, and the gentle blue glow from the lights.

He sat up. The room was plain and dull and the only decorations were the strings of jewels and coloured beads hung on the cream walls. All in all, he'd seen better places.

There was a harsh _swish_ of the door opening and the alien from the barn stepped in, his long white hair, adorned with black-wrapped braids, swaying around him. Two of his three dark eyes narrowed almost indiscernibly. The Doctor felt Clara beginning to stir.

"Doc'or," she muttered. "Where are we?"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at the alien and he answered,

"A shelter for the Forbidden. Do not fear, you will make it back." Clara sat bolt upright at the sound of the alien voice, and he realised something.

They were both naked.

Clara grabbed the sheet at the speed of light and wrapped it protectively around herself, sending a death-glare at the man.

"Where are our clothes?" she snapped. He looked confused.

"Do mated pairs not sleep with each other on your planet?"

"Do -what - wait, _mated pairs?_ Like, as in a couple? We're not together?"

"Sorry," the Doctor said, easing Clara away from the whole discussion about mating. "But last time we saw you, you were leaving us to die of cold, so why are you helping now?"

He tossed them a bundle of clothes and the Doctor sorted through them. These were the tight, flowing clothes he had seen the citizens wear: the threads weaved themselves together perfectly, incorporating shiny beads and silver trimmings that shimmered like light on fresh snow. He handed Clara the smaller pair and pulled the robe over his head, noting the soft silky material on the inside.

"What's this for? Clara asked, holding a pile of shining, tiny jewels. The alien stepped forwards and Clara let him take them and thread them around her neck. They fell into perfect lines, fitting tight around her throat and falling loosely around her shoulders.

"My name is Argis," he said, moving back. The Doctor noticed how his robes swirled around her feet like tiny waves. "I am sorry you were brought into intercity politics. However, strangers - particularly ones who walk so openly - arouse suspicion from the hunters."

"Hunters?" Clara asked, fitting a pale shawl around her face to hide her conspicuous lack of long black hair.

"Oh," the Doctor said suddenly. "You're in the aftermath of the Fifth Slevar War."

Argis bobbed his head in affirmation. He remembered now the bitter city divisions that had swept through Beruna, the distrust and bitterness and hatred that had outlasted even the war itself.

"So you all hate each other," Clara said. "Is that why whatever her name was-"

"Ianstir."

"-chucked us out? Because she thought we were spies?"

"I am forbidden to enter any other city but my own," Argis said. "Hence, the Dfrwaes. I believed, too, that it was a trick, but once I saw Ianstir I knew you were simply defenceless travellers."

"Thank you for your generosity," the Doctor said. "Can we leave this room now?"

"Of course."

 

It turned out that their bedroom was only part of a much larger complex. The Doctor talked to Argis about confusing technical stuff while they walked, leaving Clara to obsess over how she had literally woken up with her - with the Doctor. _With_ him. Like, _in the bed naked_ with him. And she definitely shouldn't be thinking about him that way, not even slightly. Even if he did have amazing sapphire eyes and a sonic screwdriver.

Nope. This was messed up. He was way too old for her. Even if. No. Nope.

Even if she hadn't been quite asleep when he's told her he loved her.

"Doctor, a minute?" she called. He nodded, and pulled her to one side of the corridor. She felt heat flare where he touched her and told herself to get a grip.

"How do we get back to the TARDIS?" she murmured.

"I don't know yet," he answered quietly. "But in Beruna, the concept of two people who aren't mated touching each other is tantamount to public indecency, so-"

"They all touched me when we arrived!"

"And that was fine, since you're not even the same species. But now we have to watch ourselves. I'm sorry to force this on you, but it is all right if I refer to us as a pair? It would save a lot of awkward questions."

"That's fine," she said, a bit too fast. "Sorry, it's a bit weird."

"If you'd rather I didn't-"

"It's fine, honestly." His eyes scanned hers, then he nodded once and walked back to Argis.

"Coming?" he called over his shoulder.

 

Argis sneaked them back into the city at nightfall. The light was provided by tiny fairy lights, twinkling away, and the gleam of the five moons. It was so beautiful, Clara almost wished they could stay.

The alien bid them farewell two streets away from where the TARDIS was parked and they strolled through the night-time city together, breathing in the cool, fresh air.

"It's very pretty here," Clara said. The Doctor smiled.

"It is, isn't it? Still, I wouldn't fancy living here. Too many arguments."

They walked on in silence for a while, until the Doctor found and unlocked the TARDIS. Clara waits until they're in before she says,

"Did you mean it?"

"Mean what?" he asked, half-turning

"When you said you loved me."

He stopped moving. Leant against the console. Looked at her.

"You did, didn't you?" she pressed. He took a breath in and let it out.

"Clara, I-"

"Did you mean it?"

There's a long, long moment of silence. Finally he said,

"Yes."

She took it in.

"Clara, I'm so-"

"Shut up," she said, and then she strode across the room, stood on her tiptoes, and kissed him.

He didn't respond and she moved away.

"Did I-"

"No," he growled, and pulled her in. His tongue flicked into her mouth and she moaned, arching against him. He was more forceful than she expected, taking what he needed, giving her what she wanted.

"Doctor," she whispered, one hand carding through his curly grey hair. The other rested on the side of his face and she smiled into the kiss.

"You alright?" he mumbled, nipping at her neck. She smiled wider.

"Perfect."

 

Later, they laid in bed facing each other. The Doctor ran his hand over his side, over her ribs, down the dip of her waist, up along her hip.

"I love you," she said. He grinned cheekily.

"I noticed."

"Oh shut up," she answered, tapping out a rhythm on his arm. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four.

"What now?" she asked quietly.

"I was thinking something warm. A Caribbean planet."

"Sounds perfect. In five minutes, though. I'm too comfortable too move."

The Doctor laughed and kissed the tip of her nose and everything, suddenly, seemed to slot into place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finished it!!! Sorry it took so long!

**Author's Note:**

> *puppy eyes* kudos?


End file.
